Harlequin

There is no mercy here, Pinocchio. I have spared you. Harlequin must burn in your place. I am hungry and my dinner must be cooked.

Clowns began appearing in the form we recognize today in the 17th century, as a character known as a harlequin. They were common in European theater, and played a character who acted foolish or played tricks.

A harlequin wore colorful clothing and covered his face with a mask to protect his identity.

Josh Helston glittered in the morning sunshine like a harlequin in a limelight, for he was spangled from head to foot with the loose silvery scales of the pilchards caught during the night, and on many another night during the past few weeks.

Tom used to be a harlequin.

The harlequin amused the public.

The harlequin had large, red lips.

[…] were certainly the worst and dullest company into which an audience was ever introduced; and (which was a secret known to few) were actually intended so to be, in order to contrast the comic part of the entertainment, and to display the tricks of harlequin to the better advantage.

Motives are like harlequins—there is always a second dress beneath their first.

And kitten, if the humour hit / Has harlequin'd away the fit.